#unforth arts

[unforth]

Forgive my atrocious 6 am phone notepad art skills but this came to me in a vision and I had to art it.

Sci-fi Bingliushen AU. Captain Liu Qingge. Security officer Luo Binghe. Science officer Shen Qingqiu. They are on the bridge. "Captain's log," says Liu Qingge, blissfully unaware of where his officers' imaginations go when they hear him say that.

[spn-fanfic-reblog-writes]

Adding to my to be read list 😊

Title: Meet Me in Montana Artist: Unforth Author: Zoelily Rating: M Pairings: Dean/Cas Wordcount: 10,235 Warnings: None

Summary: When Dean and Castiel cross paths during a vampire case in the Montana Rocky Mountains, they become unlikely friends. Visting whenever he has a case in the area, Castiel’s cabin becomes a refuge for Dean when hunting with his Dad, and missing his brother, gets to be too much. For Castiel, he didn’t realize how lonely he was until Dean started showing up in his shiny black car, giving him something new and interesting to look forward to. When Dean suddenly goes missing after a threat from a troublemaking fairy, Cas is forced to face not only a powerful entity but also his own growing feelings for his only real friend. It turns out, doing exactly that, is what got Dean into trouble in the first place.

Link to art masterpost: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19372375

Link to fic masterpost: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19340995

[mikhael-lavyas17]

Standing before ancient wonders in Egypt. History never looked so magical

[chezpillow]

Trick or treat! Bingliushen?

SQQ and his two pretty bodyguards

[wolffyluna]

Trick or treat! Hualian pigeon au (inspired by your Inktober art 🤣 )

So. This is a week later.

My excuse is, I came up with this idea for a full length fic that I thought would be fun. Sure, it was a pigeon keeping AU, but close enough. And then I started writing it, and realised that it didn't need to be as long as I planned it to be? And that by making it longer, I would have not so much as 'over egged the pudding' as 'made a sweet omellete.'

...except then it wasn't even a pigeon keeping AU?

So, I have a picture of HuaLian as pigeons.

And I have a post-canon pigeon fic.

***

Xie Lian sat on the edge of a fountain, watching as the crowds milled apart the market. The bubbling sound cut half the hubbub, and the scent of clean water cut half the smell of fried food and cooking meat.

Hua Cheng sat next to him, scanning the crowds as well, looking almost as if he was Xie Lian’s guard.

Which was funny, because they were out here in this mortal town on Ghost City business. Xie Lian didn’t have any reason to come, just— Hua Cheng had only just recently returned to him, and he was still greedy for his company. But the business was over, and they both sat around lazily, with nothing better to do.

Xie Lian munched on one of the red bean buns Hua Cheng insisted on buying for him.

A pigeon walked up to them, in that shy back and forth bob as they tried to test how close they dared to get for the reward of crumbs. She held her wings tight, ready to spring into flight at the merest twitch from the scary ‘humans.’

She was smell enough that he guessed she was a hen. Mostly white, with a strip of iridescent gray around her neck like a piece of jewellery. Very pretty, for a feral bird.

The pigeon keepers in Xianle had always favoured that pattern. The dovecotes in the palace were filled with as many pied birds like her as they were with pure white ones.

Maybe she was a distant descendant. That was a nice thought.

He pinched off a bit of bun, and tossed it to her.

She pecked at it, with great gusto and happy coos.

Hua Cheng leaned over to watch, taking the excuse to put his hand on top of Xie Lian’s. “Encouraging the rabble, I see?”

Xie Lian laughed. “Supporting my fellow busker.” He threw her another piece. A few more pigeons crept up cautiously, but she commanded enough presence that they didn’t dare approach yet. “She is a very charming performer.” If she was a long lost descendant of dove royalty, scraping a living out on the streets— well, she was fat and at least happy for now. That was something.

Hua Cheng’s eye crinkled. “I fear this San Lang is a phillistine.”

Xie Lian laughed again, and handed him some crumbs to distribute. “It takes time to properly appreciate the art, but my San Lang is so clever, I’m sure he could pick it up quickly.”

[svsssartreblogs]

sorry, but i have to agree with the prev anon who mentioned that tagging art of a character who has prosthetics as body horror is ableist. i already knew about the au from the op and when i saw that tag on your post my feelings were hurt. even though the character lost their limbs in a violent way i don't think that necessitates tagging their body afterwards as body horror when the body horror itself is not being depicted. i really respect what you do to help share fanart but your overly aggressive response to that person feels off the cuff this time. you don't have to publish this btw, you can do whatever you want on your blog as our opinions don't control you et cetera but i wish you'd take a step back and re-examine your initial defensive response and maybe consider changing your mind some day

Prosthetics aren't body horror and aren't why I used the tag. I tagged body horror because Shen Jiu's arms were violently ripped off and that was explicitly mentioned in the text of that post. If someone posted art of someone with prosthetics with a sword through their chest, I'd tag that body horror too, cause I always tag artwork with "weapons actively inserted in someone's body" as body horror, just as I've always tagged "canon Shen Jiu dismemberment" as body horror, in a standard I've used for three years running this blog so that people can avoid content referencing dismemberment, a pretty major trigger.

I can, and do, apologize that my decision hurt feelings.

But I will not remove a tag for body horror from a post that shows a character emaciated from starvation and explicitly says their limbs were torn off. That's. That's body horror.

You want to know what I did that was ableist? I wrote that whole other post, and after I hit "post" I read it again and I'd said something like "when Shen Jiu got his body back but scars show where the damage was..." and I was like wow. Fuck, me. That's some bullshit way to phrase that, losing his limbs doesn't mean he lost his body. So I immediately edited the post. Because ew. I hate that I wrote that, that I thought that, before I checked myself. I can be ableist, as can anyone, and I can admit that I've said and done ableist things, and correct myself when I'm wrong, and I do and will continue to do my best.

But I can't do anything about people interpreting my behavior, actions, and explanations in bad faith. There was body horror in that picture with the depiction of starvation and in the post text where Shen Jiu having his limbs ripped off was mentioned. There's not in this gorgeous art of the same au, and so I didn't use the tag. Nor did I tag this other lovely art of prosthetics on Shen Jiu by a different artist as body horror, because it didn't directly reference the act that led to the loss of limbs. Because, as I said, prosthetics aren't body horror and aren't why I used the tag.

I really can't help what assumptions others make about me, and I especially can't help you persisting in that assumption in the face of my explanation. The moment you and the other anon came at me with "you did this because..." instead of "why did you do this...?" I was put in an impossible situation. I can't dispell your views of me without sounding defensive, even tho you've both ascribed motives/explanations to my behavior that are demonstratively false.

Yeah. Idk really know what else I can say. Alluding to having someone's limbs ripped off is body horror.

[chainlollipop]

new addition to the ocverse surrounding adrian! i havent decided her name yet. sorry for the censorship, i'll get the concepts out eventually, rest assured.

i've also decided on a name for this universe! i'll be calling it and tagging it as unforth essence :)

[unforth]

Imo this also applies to the people going on about OOC. You're not improving literally anyone's fandom experience, you're just making people who don't have much self-confidence terrified that they'll do it "wrong" and be subject to derision.

Like. Yes great the posts I've seen on this topic usually make it clear they implemented "don't like don't read." Congrats that's the bare minimum.

But how do you not see that coming on tumblr and vague-blogging about it as absolutely rancid behavior? This is the fucking neurodivergence website. So many people, if they don't know who it's about, will think it's, if not literally about them, at least still applicable to them. The fear of being The Kind Of Person Those Posts Are About is absolutely crushing to many types of writers: those who are new, inexperienced, not writing in their native language, suffer from anxiety, using their fic to explore personal topics with the characters as proxies, and so so much more.

You don't actually have to come on tumblr for head pats ~I read something SO OOC/SO badly written/SO garbage and I didn't say anything mean to the author~ just. Just shut up! Find a friend to DM with about it privately, or make a private bookmark and whine there, or keep a personal journal, but for fuck's sake stop making generalizable posts about what kinds of fic are shit, and everyone else, stop fucking reblogging them.

It's actually so damn easy to not do this, and I feel like seeing it's proliferation is another symptom of a lot of old norms in fandom wearing down.

TL:DR, if you read something you hate

✅️ don't like, don't read

❌️ vagueblog about it on tumblr

✅️ shit or get off the pot (read something else or make your fucking own if you think you can do better)

Signed, an author who likes writing out-there AUs where I deep dive into one specific aspect of a character's personality and amplify it, who is extremely tired of bookmarks like this:

[Id: screen capture of a bookmark comment from AO3. Text reads: I disagree with most of the characterization, but separating it from SPN this is an excellent story about being queer.]

Like. Thanks I guess.

Anyway, sorry to go off on your post, OP, I've just been pissed about this for a while and I guess this is the moment I'm opening my mouth.

I think it's mean how some people talk about fics on AO3.

'Oh you gotta wade through literal trash to find the good stuff'.

Were you not a beginner once? Did you not write crack fic or self indulgent things for your own entertainment?

Maybe don't speak that way about your fellow fic writers? Just because some fics aren't as polished as others, or involve fetishes and tropes you don't enjoy, or are not the style you want your fics to be doesn't mean they're trash.

It's a horrible thing to say and beginners are going to be discouraged from writing knowing that their fics might be considered trash because they're just starting out.

[mdzsartreblogs]

Recognizing AI Generated Images, Danmei Edition

Heyo, @unforth here! I run some danmei art blogs (@mdzsartreblogs, @tgcfartreblogs, @svsssartreblogs, @zhenhunartreblogs, @erhaartreblogs, @dmbjartreblogs, @tykartreblogs, and @cnovelartreblogs) which means I see a LOT of danmei art, and I go through the main fandom tags more-or-less every day.

Today, for the first time, I spotted someone posting AI-generated images (I refuse to call them AI "art" - and to be clear, that's correct of me, because at least in the US it literally LEGALLY isn't art) without any label indicating they were AI generated. I am not necessarily against the existence of AI-generated images (though really...considering all the legal issues and the risks of misuse, I'm basically against them); I think they potentially have uses in certain contexts (such as for making references) and I also think that regardless of our opinions, we're stuck with them, but they're also clearly not art and I don't reblog them to the art side blogs.

The images I spotted today had multiple "tells," but they were still accumulating notes, and I thought it might be a good moment to step back and point out some of the more obvious tells because my sense is that a LOT of people are against AI-generated images being treated as art, and that these people wouldn't want to support an AI-generator user who tried to foist off their work as actual artwork, but that people don't actually necessarily know how to IDENTIFY those works and therefore can inadvertently reblog works that they'd never support if they were correctly identified. (Similar to how the person who reposts and says "credit to the artist" is an asshole but they're not the same as someone who reposts without any credit at all and goes out of their way to make it look like they ARE the artist when they're not).

Toward that end, I've downloaded all the images I spotted on this person's account and I'm going to use them to highlight the things that led me to think they were AI art - they posted a total of 5 images to a few major danmei tags the last couple days, and several other images not to specific fandoms (I examined 8 images total). The first couple I was suspicious, but it wasn't til this morning that I spotted one so obvious that it couldn't be anything BUT AI art. I am NOT going to name the person who did this. The purpose of this post is purely educational. I have no interest whatsoever in bullying one rando. Please don't try to identify them; who they are is genuinely irrelevant, what matters is learning how to recognize AI art in general and not spreading it around, just like the goal of education about reposting is to help make sure that people who repost don't get notes on their theft, to help people recognize the signs so that the incentive to be dishonest about this stuff is removed.

But first: Why is treating AI-generated images as art bad?

I'm no expert and this won't be exhaustive, but I do think it's important to first discuss why this matters.

On the surface, it's PERHAPS harmless for someone to post AI-generated images provided that the image is clearly labeled as AI-generated. I say "perhaps" because in the end, as far as I'm aware, there isn't a single AI-generation engine that's built on legally-sourced artwork. Every AI (again, to the best of my knowledge) has been trained using copyrighted images usually without the permission of the artists. Indeed, this is the source of multiple current lawsuits. (and another)

But putting that aside (as if it can be put aside that AI image generators are literally unethically built), it's still problematic to support the images being treated as art. Artists spend thousands of hours learning their craft, honing it, sharing their creations, building their audiences. This is what they sell when they offer commissions, prints, etc. This can never be replicated by a computer, and to treat an AI-generated image as in any way equivalent is honestly rude, inappropriate, disgusting imo. This isn't "harmless"; supporting AI image creation engines is damaging to real people and their actual livelihoods. Like, the images might be beautiful, but they're not art. I'm honestly dreading someone managing to convince fandom that their AI-generated works are actual art, and then cashing in on commissions, prints, etc., because people can't be fussed to learn the difference. We really can't let this happen, guys. Fanartists are one of the most vibrant, important, prominent groups in all our fandoms, and we have to support them and do our part to protect them.

As if those two points aren't enough, there's already growing evidence that AI-generated works are being used to further propagandists. There are false images circulating of violence at protests, deep-fakes of various kinds that are helping the worst elements of society to push their horrid agendas. As long as that's a facet of AI-generated works, they'll always be dangerous.

I could go on, but really this isn't the main point of my post and I don't want to get bogged down. Other people have said more eloquently than I why AI-generated images are bad. Read those. (I tried to find a good one to link but sadly failed; if anyone knows a good post, feel free to send it and I'll add the link to the post).

Basically: I think a legally trained AI-image generator that had built-in clear watermarks could be a fun toy for people who want reference images or just to play with making pseudo-art. But...that's not what we have, and what we do have is built on theft and supports dystopia so, uh. Yeah fuck AI-generated images.

How to recognize AI-Generated Images Made in an Eastern Danmei Art Style

NOTE: I LEARNED ALL THE BASIC ON SPOTTING AI-GENERATED IMAGES FROM THIS POST. I'll own I still kinda had the wool over my eyes until I read that post - I knew AI stuff was out there but I hadn't really looked closely enough to have my eyes open for specific signs. Reading that entire post taught me a lot, and what I learned is the foundation of this post.

This post shouldn't be treated as a universal guide. I'm specifically looking at the tells on the kind of art that people in danmei fandoms often see coming from Weibo and other Chinese, Japanese, and Korean platforms, works made by real artists. For example, the work of Foxking (狐狸大王a), kokirapsd, and Changyang (who is an official artist for MDZS, TGCF, and other danmei works). This work shares a smooth use of color, an aim toward a certain flavor of realism, an ethereal quality to the lighting, and many other features. (Disclaimer: I am not an artist. Putting things in arty terms is really not my forte. Sorry.)

So, that's what these AI-generated images are emulating. And on the surface, they look good! Like...

...that's uncontestably a pretty picture (the white box is covering the "artist's" watermark.) And on a glance, it doesn't necessarily scream "AI generated"! But the devil is in the details, and the details are what this post is about. And that picture? Is definitely AI generated.

This post is based on 8 works I grabbed from a single person's account, all posted as their own work and watermarked as such. Some of the things that are giveaways only really show when looking at multiple pieces. I'm gonna start with those, and then I'll highlight some of the specifics I spotted that caused me to go from "suspicious" to "oh yeah no these are definitely not art."

Sign 1: all the images are the exact same size. I mean, to the pixel: 512 x 682 pixels (or 682 x 512, depending on landscape or portrait orientation). This makes zero sense. Why would an artist trim all their pieces to that size? It's not the ideal Tumblr display size (that's 500 x 750 pixels). If you check any actual artist's page and look at the full-size of several of their images, they'll all be different sizes as they trimmed, refined, and otherwise targeted around their original canvas size to get the results they wanted.

Sign 2: pixelated. At the shrunken size displayed on, say, a mobile Tumblr feed, the image looks fine, but even just opening the full size upload, the whole thing is pixelated. Now, this is probably the least useful sign; a lot of artists reduce the resolution/dpi/etc. on their uploaded works so that people don't steal them. But, taken in conjunction with everything else, it's definitely a sign.

Those are the two most obvious overall things - the things I didn't notice until I looked at all the uploads. The specifics are really what tells, though. Which leads to...

Sign 3: the overall work appears to have a very high degree of polish, as if it were made by an artist who really really knows what they're doing, but on inspection - sometimes even on really, REALLY cursory inspect - the details make zero sense and reflect the kinds of mistakes that a real artist would never make.

So, here's the image that I saw that "gave it away" to me, and caused me to re-examine the images that had first struck me as off but that I hadn't been able to immediately put my finger on the problem. I've circled some of the spots that are flagrant.

Do you see yet? Yes? Awesome, you're getting it. No? Okay, let's go point by point, with close ups.

Sign 4: HANDS. Hands are currently AI's biggest weakness, though they've been getting better quickly and honestly that's terrifying. But whatever AI generated this picture clearly doesn't get hands yet, because that hand is truly an eldritch horror. Look at this thing:

It has two palms. It has seven fingers. It's basically two hands overlaid over each other, except one of those hands only has four fingers and the other has three. Seeing this hand was how I went from "umm...maybe they're fake? Maybe they're not???" to "oh god why is ANYONE reblogging this when it's this obvious?" WATCH THE HANDS. (Go back up to that first one posted and look at the hand, you'll see. Or just look right below at this crop.) Here's some other hands:

Sign 5: Hair and shadows. Once I started inspecting these images, the shadows of the hair on the face was one of the things that was most consistently fucked up across all the uploaded pictures. Take a look:

There's shadows of tendrils on the forehead, but there's no corresponding hair that could possibly have made those shadows. Likewise there's a whole bunch of shadows on the cheeks. Where are those coming from? There's no possible source in the rest of the image. Here's some other hair with unrelated wonky shadows:

Sign 6: Decorative motifs that are really just meaningless squiggles. Like, artists, especially those who make fanart, put actual thought into what the small motifs are on their works. Like, in TGCF, an artist will often use a butterfly motif or a flower petal motif to reflect things about the characters. An AI, though, can only approximate a pattern and it can't imbue those with meanings. So you end up with this:

What is that? It's nothing, that's what. It's a bunch of squiggles. Here's some other meaningless squiggle motifs (and a more zoomed-in version of the one just above):

Sign 7: closely related to meaningless squiggle motifs is motifs that DO look like something, but aren't followed through in any way that makes sense. For example, an outer garment where the motifs on the left and the right shoulder/chest are completely different, or a piece of cloth that's supposed to be all one piece but that that has different patterns on different sections of it. Both of these happen in the example piece, see?

The first images on the top left is the left and right shoulder side by side. The right side has a scalloped edge; the left doesn't. Likewise, in the right top picture, you can see the two under-robe lapels; one has a gold decoration and the other doesn't. And then the third/bottom image shows three sections of the veil. One (on the left) has that kind of blue arcy decoration, which doesn't follow the folds of the cloth very well and looks weird and appears at one point to be OVER the hair instead of behind it. The second, on top of the bottom images, shows a similar motif, except now it's gold, and it looks more like a hair decoration than like part of the veil. The third is also part of the same veil but it has no decorations at all. Nothing about this makes any sense whatsoever. Why would any artist intentionally do it that way? Or, more specifically, why would any artist who has this apparent level of technical skill ever make a mistake like this?

They wouldn't.

Some more nonsensical patterns, bad mirrors, etc. (I often put left/right shoulders side by side so that it'd be clearer, sorry if it's weird):

Sign 8: bizarre architecture, weird furniture, etc. Most of the images I'm examining for this post have only partial backgrounds, so it's hard to really focus on this, but it's something that the post I linked (this one) talks about a lot. So, like, an artist will put actual thought into how their construction works, but an AI won't because an AI can't. There's no background in my main example image, but take a look at this from another of my images:

On a glance it's beautiful. On a few seconds actually staring it's just fucking bizarre. The part of the ceiling on the right appears to be domed maybe? But then there's a hard angle, then another. The windows on the right have lots of panes, but then the one on the middle-left is just a single panel, and the ones on the far left have a complete different pane model. Meanwhile, also on the left side at the middle, there's that dark gray...something...with an arch that mimics the background arches except it goes no where, connects to nothing, and has no apparent relationship to anything else going on architecturally. And, while the ceiling curves, the back wall is straight AND shows more arches in the background even though the ceiling looks to end. And yes, some of this is possible architecture, but taken as a whole, it's just gibberish. Why would anyone who paints THAT WELL paint a building to look like THAT? They wouldn't. It's nonsense. It's the art equivalent of word salad. When we look at a sentence and it's like "dog makes a rhythmical salad to betray on the frame time plot" it almost resembles something that might mean something but it's clearly nonsense. This background is that sentence, as art.

Sign 9: all kinds of little things that make zero sense. In the example image, I circled where a section of the hair goes BELOW the inner robe. That's not impossible but it just makes zero sense. As with many of these, it's the kind of thing that taken alone, I'd probably just think "well, that was A Choice," but combined with all the other weird things it stands out as another sign that something here is really, really off. Here's a collection of similar "wtf?" moments I spotted across the images I looked at (I'm worried I'm gonna hit the Tumblr image cap, hence throwing these all in one, lol.)

You have to remember that an actual artist will do things for a reason. And we, as viewers, are so used to viewing art with that in mind that we often fill in reasons even when there aren't. Like, in the image just about this, I said, "what the heck are these flowers growing on?" And honestly, I COULD come up with explanations. But that doesn't mean it actually makes sense, and there's no REASON for it whatsoever. The theoretical same flowers are, in a different shot, growing unsupported! So...what gives??? The answer is nothing gives. Because these pieces are nothing. The AI has no reason, it's just tossing in random aesthetic pieces together in a mishmash, and the person who generated them is just re-generating and refining until they get something that looks "close enough" to what they wanted. It never was supposed to make sense, so of course it doesn't.

In conclusion...

After years of effort, artists have gotten across to most of fandom that reposts are bad, and helped us learn strategies for helping us recognize reposts, and given us an idea of what to do when we find one.

Fandom is just at the beginning of this process as it applies to AI-generated images. There's a LOT of education that has to be done - about why AI-generated images are bad (the unethical training using copyrighted images without permission is, imo, critical to understanding this), and about how to spot them, and then finally about what to do when you DO find them.

With reposts, we know "tell original artist, DCMA takedowns, etc." That's not the same with these AI-images. There's no original owner. There's no owner at all - in the US, at least, they literally cannot be copyrighted. Which is why I'm not even worrying about "credit" on this post - there's nothing stolen, cause there's nothing made. So what should you do?

Nothing. The answer is, just as the creator has essentially done nothing, you should also do nothing. Don't engage. Don't reblog. Don't commission the creator or buy their art prints. If they do it persistently and it bothers you, block them. If you see one you really like, and decide to reblog it, fine, go for it, but mark it clearly - put in the ACTUAL COMMENTS (not just in the tags!) that it's AI art, and that you thought it was pretty anyway. But honestly, it'd be better to not engage, especially since as this grows it's inevitable that some actual artists are going to start getting accused of posting AI-generated images by over-zealous people. Everyone who gets a shadow wrong isn't posting AI-generated images. A lot of these details are insanely difficult to get correct, and lots of even very skilled, accomplished artists, if you go over their work with a magnifying glass you're going to find at least some of these things, some weirdnesses that make no sense, some shadows that are off, some fingers that are just ugh (really, getting hands wrong is so relatable. hands are the fucking worst). It's not about "this is bad art/not art because the hand is wrong," it's specifically about the ways that it's wrong, the way a computer randomly throws pieces together versus how actual people make actual mistakes. It's all of the little signs taken as a whole to say "no one who could produce a piece that, on the surface, looks this nice, could possibly make THIS MANY small 'mistakes.'"

The absolute best thing you can do if you see AI-generated images being treated as real art is just nothing. Support actual artists you love, and don't spread the fakes.

Thanks for your time, everyone. Good luck avoiding AI-generated pieces in the future, please signal boost this, and feel free to get in touch if you think I can help you with anything related to this.

[cnovelartreblogs]

tracking #cnovelartreblogs

do you make art for a smaller Chinese fandom - danmei, baihe, non-queer book, cdrama based on a book, or even cdrama NOT based on a book?

do you wish more people who are interested in smaller Chinese fandoms could see your work?

tag #cnovelartreblogs when you post, and I'll see it and be able to queue it to reblog to this blog, which currently has about 500 followers specifically interested in all kinds of less-popular-in-English-speaking-spaces Chinese fandoms! while I focus on danmei, I absolutely will reblog all the categories listed above - any type of ship, from books or shows, as long as the fandom's source material is from China!

if you're not sure what qualifies, I encourage you to visit the blog and get a general idea from the massively out of date but still basically accurate aside from the old part pinned post!

I politely request that artworks for mxtx fandoms NOT be tagged with cnovelartreblogs! I check the main tags for those fandoms every day, as long as you use those tags I should see your work. #cnovelartreblogs is intended to help me find works from smaller fandoms that are often difficult to collect. I will block people who abuse the tag and make my life more difficult, so if you put things there that don't belong, your work won't get reblogged at all, so please respect my request and don't waste my time.

thanks advance, everyone! I look forward to seeing all the things you've made!

-unforth

PLEASE REBLOG TO SPREAD THE WORD! People in small fandoms can be hard to find and I'd like to cast a wide net. <3

[unforth]

The last time I played with this stuff...

...with my kids, I obviously had to make...

...Wangxian bunnies. So of course this time I made...

...Hualian!

My son: why are they connected by a ribbon?

Me: because they're in love

Him: awwwww

[takonxmz]

Do you have some trouble sleeping?

Do you find yourself tossing and turning restlessly in bed?

Have you ever thought, "Gee, I sure could use a 15-minute long recitation of A Compiled List of Known Lan Clan Rules with a musical backdrop of a soothing guqin to help me fall asleep."

Well, LOOK NO FURTHER! You, too, can join us in being lulled into meditative sleep with the soft voices of this year's Voice Team members reciting the rules of the Gusu Lan!!! Enjoy a good night's rest or a restorative nap with this contemplative multi-voice podfic of the principles and virtues followed by highly esteemed cultivators, such as the noble Zewu-jun, the righteous Hanguang-jun, and the wise Grandmaster himself, Lan Qiren!

FEATURING A PODFIC OF:

A Compiled List Of Known Lan Clan Rules compiled by @unforth!

Read to you by @airgiodslv , avanie, @deepestbluesky @esbielle @flamingwell , @gavilansblog , jennisaisquoi @keriarentikai @kisahawklin LadyEn, pezzax, @polynomialpandemic, @pxssnelke , @semperfiona sisi_rambles @sunkitten-shash & @takonxmz! cover art by @esbielle, editing by @takonxmz!

🎧 《Listen on AO3 Here!》 🔉

《Original Text by Unforth》

[theshenanijiang]

I present the character design I came up for for Howl!Xie Lian. This isn't even the final form! Next, I will work on Sophie!Hua Cheng and then I plan on making some art of them both interacting. This is all due to the post @unforth made about a Howl's Moving Castle AU HuaLian.

I had a lot of fun working on this. It has been ages since I have had the motivation to draw.

Some notes. I wanted to draw on some of the elements of Howl's design without just putting Xie Lian in Howl's clothes. So, we have the big coat, which I view as an affectation of Howl's to make himself bigger and more impressive and dapper of course. This coat has golden chrysanthemum embroidery. I usually pick my emblems for a meaning. In this case, the chrysanthemum is meant to represent nobility, new life, and longevity.

I looked at a lot of pictures of both the Fang Xin Guoshi and Crown Prince eras of Xie Lian to kind of figure out what sort of fancy feeling I wanted to go for. I really enjoy the peach to dusky rose ombre of his clothes and the mint accent was meant to keep it fresh. The touches of white are a nod to the main outfit we see him in in TGCF.

The earring is another nod to Howl's design of course.

I will probably reblog this when I finish Spohie!Hua Cheng.

[fistfuloflightning]

art prompt from @unforth, thanks hon! as I’ve already done a bust portrait of Wen Qing here, I’ll do the Ghost General instead :)

[guardianbingo]

Fest Recap

It's hard to believe it's been TWO YEARS since Guardian Bingo launched. In that time, we issued 138 cards and more than 100 badges. There are 456 works in the AO3 collection and many other posts on tumblr with art, edits, meta, fanARTifacts, and other creations. While it's now time to say goodbye (at least for this fest - the story will keep on going), I didn't want to leave without recognizing the people who made this fest so amazing. First, a HUGE thanks to @highlynerdy, who created all of the gorgeous fest graphics (banner, icon, cards, and badges) and @sasamelons, who provided invaluable help with initial prompts and then supplied each month's bonus prompt. Without them, this fest wouldn't have happened. They have been awesome co-mods!!! Second, a massive thank you to everyone who participated!!!! It's been so great to see all the amazing creations that the prompts inspired. Guardian fandom, you are truly talented!!! To celebrate everyone's creations, I'm loading the queue with reblogs of fills from the past two years.

Below the cut, I've posted a list of badges claimed. (Not everyone who participated claimed a badge.) I'm only tagging people once with the highest badge they earned. (So if you earned a Lit Guardian Lantern, your name will only appear in that list since earning that badge means you also earned the others.) Users that aren't tagged aren't on tumblr. I think I have everyone, but many apologies if I missed you.

I hope you've all enjoyed this fest and that it was fun and low-stress. In a week or so, I plan to post a few cards in case anyone is looking for inspiration. While we won't be issuing more badges or posting new bonus prompts, I am leaving the AO3 collection open and will periodically check the fest account. If you create something based on a card prompt, @ us in your post and we'll reblog it. Guardian Bingo, it has been a BLAST!!! Thank you all for making this a fabulous fest!!!! mod @tehfanglyfish

First Fill @unforth Lit Guardian Lantern (Blackout)

@tinypinkmouse @miss-ingno @the-marron @stupid-lemon-eater @buriedbybooks @theworldisabrokenbonebutitishome @flamingwell velithya @forerussake @jayswing101 @bladedweaponsandswishycoats @programmedradly @avaantares @tehfanglyfish Unlit Lantern (Two Lines) @elenothar Mountain-River (One Line) @mimosaeyes @sasamelons @justacoyote

Longevity Dial (One Fill) @yaaurens @missfangirll @crystalinn @true-unicorn-queen jade @spicymayoblandketchup @presumenothing @drjezdzany samarium @dancing-out-in-space @evnissyn @lacommunarde @silvandar

[xieliansbignaturals]

This is random but do you have any idea if there's a way to find "spicy" NSFW art for tgcf on this hellsite ? Every time I try looking up the tags #hualian and #nsfw, Tumblr basically tells me it's against their rules to look it up lol. Is there another tag the fandom uses to get around it?

Oh my gosh, yeah. 😭 I don't think there's a tag for it, unfortunately. Everyone seems to use their own tags, and there's no way to filter for mature content labels (as far as I'm aware). I only ever see NSFW TGCF art when it comes across my dashboard.

Sorry to not be more helpful! :(

Edit: @unforth put this link in the replies: https://tgcfartreblogs.tumblr.com/tagged/lemon It's the NSFW tag of a blog that reblogs a whole bunch of TGCF fanart from the tag (all of it, maybe??) and categorizes it. Probably your best bet!